KUNC: Colorado lawmakers are advancing a bill to exempt themselves from parts of the Open Meetings Law despite facing strong opposition from transparency advocates who fear the measure would encourage policy to be crafted in secret at the statehouse.

Democrats passed Senate Bill 157on a party-line vote in the Senate on Monday, and the House Judiciary Committee approved it Wednesday.

The bill is now heading to the House for a series of votes.

The measure would let state lawmakers discuss bills and other public business electronically with each other by email or text message without the communications constituting a public meeting. And the rules would only be relaxed for the 100 state lawmakers, not local government officials.

Visit KUNC for more.